dualboot pre-installed vista notebook?

i was wondering is it possible to dualboot a notebook/desktop if vista is already installed? if so how? ive looked around but so far xp has to be already installed.
i tried to do it to my notebook but vista just became corrupt and would not load or show up at the boot loader. (of course different partition)

 

There's alot of guides out there, I can't really recommend any :s. But a search of "dual boot vista linux vista installed first" will result in what you need.
From what I've read GRUB (if you're using ubuntu) overwrites the MBR so it doesn't recognize Vista so you have to manually add the Vista option to GRUB and it'll show up.

o here's a guide that looks nice o.o uses pictures too.

 

what if you have xp installed first?
cause not alot of my apps/ games work with vista yet, but id like to keep it

 

It's a lot simpler to dual-boot Vista with XP already installed. A google search for "dual boot Vista" will give you a lot of hits. The only other thing you'll need is partition software if you need to adjust the size of your partitions. Otherwise very very simple.

 

Here is what I did to my notebook after installing the 2nd OS (XP Pro.)

Boot into XP and install EasyBCD to fix the Vista bootloader.
After that, boot to Vista and install EasyBCD again to add the XP boot option.

Hope this can help.

 

ok thanks.